{"id":659,"date":"2014-05-07T02:28:34","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T02:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/?p=659"},"modified":"2017-09-22T02:29:21","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T02:29:21","slug":"my-journey-to-become-an-interpreter-a-personal-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/2014\/05\/07\/my-journey-to-become-an-interpreter-a-personal-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"My journey to become an interpreter: a personal essay"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2013 Tatiana Carajilescov (PLD member) \u2013<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

How did I become an interpreter? I wish I could say that I knew what an interpreter was when I first started, but I can\u2019t. What did I learn about interpretation in high school? Absolutely nothing. I was 18 years old and fresh out of high school when I was accepted at PUC, the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, to study literature. I will confess that I became an English major for the purest and dullest of reasons: because I loved to read. (I stole those words from Jeffrey Eugenides). I wasn\u2019t left-brained enough for science. I was pursuing a degree no different from what I had been doing in high school \u2013 reading and learning English.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once I started at the university, I found out I had to choose among four different areas.<\/em>\u00a0I would have to choose among becoming an executive secretary (too dry!), a translator (too introspective!) or a teacher, which I wasn\u2019t smart enough to pull off. Finally, the fourth option was conference interpretation. Now we\u2019re talking! I like to talk and I am a sort of jack of all trades and master of none. A subject might suddenly become fascinating for me, and I develop an appetite to know everything there is to know about it. I will devour everything that I can find and just as quickly as my interest came, it goes away when I move on to my next assignment.<\/p>\n

I love preparing for a conference. I become a bird of prey driven by instinct. I hunt for every piece of knowledge I can find, study for hours and contact anyone who can help me.<\/p>\n

We interpreters are members of an unrecognized profession. We are mistakenly called \u201ctranslators\u201d all the time. We are not identified as high-level professionals like doctors and lawyers. Most of us, like myself, work as freelancers and don\u2019t have full-time \u201cjobs\u201d. It is true, the opportunities to work full time with paid benefits are limited, but I do have a hard-earned university degree in conference interpretation and I\u2019m qualified to do what I do. I am no different than a freelance writer, journalist, graphic designer or any other self-employed professional.<\/p>\n

I live in a country that talks about immigration reform every day in the news; we interpreters are in high demand! Yet every time I hear the question: \u201chow is work?\u201d it sounds like mockery. I simply smirk back and say: \u201cit is great!\u201d<\/p>\n

So why did I became an interpreter? Every day is a unique experience. Working as an interpreter keeps me sharp, it enhances my creativity and helps me understand the human soul. There is no routine. One day, I am preparing for a conference on venous disease; the next, I\u2019m learning about recipes using mayonnaise. Other days I just feel glad that I could help an immigrant to communicate.<\/p>\n

When I was young, I used to hear my dad say that he had two salaries: one he received at the end of the month to pay bills, and the other was the satisfaction of doing what he liked. As a young person I didn\u2019t understand what he meant, but thinking of it now I finally understand. It is with great passion that I work as an interpreter.<\/p>\n

Tatiana Carajilescov<\/strong>\u00a0was born in Boston and grew up in Brazil in a family of scientists. She graduated from PUC-Rio with a BA in conference interpreting. She then moved to New York to be immersed in the American culture. She is a freelance interpreter, accredited court interpreter; in addition, she works as a Language Specialist at the Department of Homeland Security, and occasionally travels with the Department of State.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2013 Tatiana Carajilescov (PLD member) \u2013 How did I become an interpreter? I wish I could say that I knew what an interpreter was when I first started, but I can\u2019t. What did I learn about interpretation in high school? Absolutely nothing. I was 18 years old and fresh out of high school when I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-interpreting","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions\/660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}